Apres les autres, la deluge

[RedLetterRev]

I read a thread by rateyes that got me thinking (probably a dangerous thing to do) about some of the things that have crossed my mind over the last four or five years. The original premise was the first thing to do to get our economy back on track was simply to stop the war. I agreed, and carried the thread forward. At his suggestion, I'm starting a subthread on "what happens from here, given what we've seen over the last few years and especially what we've seen in the past couple of weeks".

I'm positing this theory, one I posted about three years ago on Kicking Ass (the now-defunct DNC blog) where it got some "hmm's" and a bit of discussion. I'm bringing around again because it seems even more likely, at least to me, since the economy has suddenly gone much more sour than its architects believed it would, and much sooner (I believe) than they thought it would. A couple of things seem to have hastened its demise they hadn't factored in, Katrina and Ike by name. I'll accept that there are probably a thousand other vectors that, in their greed, haste and, well, outright chutzpah they didn't bother to add in and it might do well to enumerate them in comments. I believe that there is no bad intelligence, save what one makes up (to wit: the case for aggression on Iraq, but I digress only slightly for sake of example).

Here's how it goes:

I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the worst offenders of the economic meltdown are already "taking extended vacations" abroad and may forget to return when (not if) the mess they've brewed finally does implode. I've been saying for years now that when they've exported our jobs and our dollars offshore where we'll never touch them again, they will likely follow once we've no longer the means, the money, or the will to pursue them. They won't give a damn and we'll be too busy trying to figure out how to eat without eating one another.

There are a lot of good reasons why Cheneyburton and allied companies suddenly moved to Dubai and why the Bush family have a huge compound in Paraguay. I'm equally sure that we wouldn't like 99% of them, such as either a complete lack of extradition treaties or a traditional lack of enforcement thereof, and the convenience of the super-secret, private bank accounts of Dubai which now house billions of our dollars already converted to other currencies. Again, which we'll never see again. They're gone. Say buh-bye.

What'll be left behind sitting with us in the smoking remains will be the cast-off toadies in the form of bigbox rapcha-preachas and pet-kook right-wing senators, who will probably be among the first to be lynched by their own erstwhile star-struck fans when those recover from their koolade binge after receiving a cold dose of hard-knock reality.

In Switzerland, Dubai and Paraguay, the über-rich will be sipping mimosas, muttering platitudes about "collateral damage", smugly relieved they aren't the ones getting lynched.

On this side of the aisle, we saw every bit of this coming 30 years ago and it's playing out word-for-word, page for page. "We told you so" really doesn't taste that good on the tongue.

It's only a theory, there are a lot of vectors to it, and it's only mine. But it's what I believe I've seen coalescing over the last three-ish years.

[PATRICK]

1. The world has become a very small

place for the old emigres model. Economic meltdown and democratization SUCCEEDING with no real world divisions of rival powers to create powerful refuges will, I hope sincerely, make their bitter exile both transitory and their last remaining good times on planet earth.

[RedLetterRev]

2. I do wonder, though

with our recent lack of success with the Swiss and with Dubai in trying to peer into some of those bank accounts. Senator Gramm isn't just running around loose; he's still connected with the McCain campaign. That gives me a certain lack of confidence in (1) the IRS ever collecting rightful taxes on money that has been offshored by less-than-legal means and (2) we'll ever recoup monies absconded with by profiteering and outright fraud in war profiteering and stashed in Dubai.

I'm usually an optimist by nature, but given that such stunning amounts have been offshored since the 90's with an exponential acceleration since the start of aggression on Iraq, well, I'm not quite so sunny about our prospects any more.

We just don't have the standing we did a mere eight years ago. Here we stand hat in hand.

Perhaps if we can get a Progressive majority in both houses of Congress and damned quickly, we can begin. But it won't happen an instant before and it will be a great fight even when we do.

[rateyes]

3. K & R

:kick: